Page 21 of The Alpha's Protective Mate

His words take me by surprise.

If he looked in the registry of my clan, he would have found my first name, along with my birth date.

All supernatural beings have to register their families. It’s a way to keep track of everyone. The information is easily accessible. Removing someone from the register is a long hassle and very rarely done. It’s been eight years, but the shock of his revelation leaves me reeling.

They struck me from the registry.

The thought stuns me, and my chest tightens with raw emotion.

I never thought my father would go the extra mile and actually remove me from the family register. To the Nelo Clan, I basically no longer exist, nor did I ever exist.

I feel my eyes burn with tears, and I lower my gaze.

Useless.

That’s what my father called me when he dragged me by the arm, my siblings watching and grinning.

“You are a disgrace to this family!”

He threw me outside the clan territory as if I were nothing more than garbage.

He must have really despised me to have wiped my entire existence from the clan.

“Charlotte?”

Robert’s voice sounds concerned, and I look up.

“What?” I wipe my eyes furiously. “You just don’t give up, do you? You want to know the truth? My family didn’t want me, okay? I’m a defect. I’m a defective vampire! If they went and struck me from the family register, they clearly don’t have anything to do with me anymore. I don’t have a clan. I don’t have a family. I don’t have anyone. So just—” my voice cracks, “just leave me alone! I just want to be left alone.” I get to my feet, my heart throbbing with a pain that has never really died. “If you want to get rid of me, just kill me. Stop wrecking whatever life I’m trying to build for myself!”

Turning on my heel, I run toward the back room.

He can catch me easily if he wishes, but he doesn’t.

I run past a startled Shelby, straight into the storage room, and slamming the door shut behind me, I sink to the ground, trying to regulate my breathing. I can feel the panic attack coming; it’s hard to think, hard to breathe past the suffocation that is strangling me.

I was never enough.

For my father, for my siblings, for my clan, I was never enough. And no matter how hard I work, how many plans I make for the future, the constant reminder of how unwanted I am never stops looming over my head. My heart feels like it will burst out of my chest, it’s beating so painfully hard.

Like packs are important to wolf shifters, vampires thrive in their clans. Without a clan, we are nothing. I feel like nothing most of the time. Sometimes, when I look at myself in the mirror, I want to smash the reflection. I want to hate the tired-looking woman staring back at me.

Why does no one want me?

The fourteen-year-old asked that question over and over again as she wandered into the city, shivering, her heart broken. The twenty-two-year-old woman I’ve become still asks this question.

I’ve worked at a number of places, but this one, this cafe, and the shelter I volunteer at, they helped me find my footing. This little coffee shop, the people who work here, they gave me a place to belong. Maybe for Shelby and Jazz, and even Gina, this place might just be another job, but for me, it’s stability. I’ve never had that before. I’ve found people I consider friends, something I’ve always wanted. It’s not much, but it gives me some peace. And now…Now, I’m being forced to give it all up again.

I wipe my eyes, and there’s a knock on the door.

“Charlotte, sweetie, you okay?” Shelby sounds upset. “Please open the door.”

“I’m fine,” I say, trying to breathe through the panic. “Give me a minute.”

Silence from the other side, and then Shelby says, “Your boyfriend is gone.”

A choked guffaw bubbles out of my mouth. The sheer absurdity of her words makes me want to both laugh and cry, at the same time.

It helps.

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